DAM DIGGING IS ONE-THIRD DONE

          from the Wenatchee World, February 10, 1934:

DAM DIGGING IS ONE-THIRD DONE
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Progress Chart Shows Contractors Far Ahead of Time Schedule
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     GRAND COULEE DAM SITE, Feb. 10.--With only about one-fourth of the allowed time passed, subcontractors under David H. Ryan, at the end of Thursday's three-shift routine had removed more than one-third of the contracted 2,000,000 yards of earth for the abutments of the giant hydroelectric dam here.
     According to the chart of progress kept by E. Paul Ford, general superintendent, the 666,666 cubic yard mark was passed sometime during the day on Thursday.  The volume moved is divided almost equally between the two sides.
        When working full force, five shovels are employed by Goodfellow Brothers
   on the east side and two shovels plus two 12-yard Le Tourneau scrapers on the
   east shore.
     After a rather hectic two days on Wednesday and Thursday when the rainfall made passage to the damsite over the highway leading to the Almira-Coulee City highway junction impossible, activity resumed normality again yesterday even though the highway was still closed.
               Visitors Walk
     The fallen sector of the road is still the main attraction here with many visitors coming in cars and walking to the damsite to see the sight.  Work was progressing rapidly yesterday as trucks dump load after load of sand and gravel on the roadbed.  However because work has been started on the lower end of the road with the top area undisturbed long rows of cars still lined the damsite highway above the crevices.
               River Current Turned
     The river bottom below the Goodfellow fill is bulging more and more under the weight of the fill pressure and Ford, who traveled up and down the river in his sea-sled "The Miss Coulee" remarked that the current running straight down the river before now had been turned toward the east shore because of the rising west side.
     The first sidewalk to be seen at the damsite was completed yesterday between the office of the Grand Coulee Development company and Thompson's Beer Parlor.  Although only about 25 yards long, the construction marks another step forward in the progress of the building of a city here.
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          from the Grand Coulee News, mid-February, 1934

Type of Dam To Be Selected In Two Weeks

     Selection of the type of dam to be constructed at Grand Coulee will be made in about two weeks, James O'Sullivan, chairman of the Columbia Basin Commission told the News Saturday.  Here with Mr. O'Sullivan were Rufus Woods and Senator Holands, members of the commission, who looked over work at the dam.  Mr. Rolands is the new member of the commission and this was his first visit to the damsite.
     Ten different designs are now being drafted by the reclamation office at Denver.  The commission will meet with the reclamation department in two weeks, when the designs will be completed.  The commission has not the power to choose the type, but acts in an advisory role.
     Reports current that a type had been chosen are erroneous, O'Sullivan said.  The commission, he declared, was working for a gravity type dam, with the base for the high dam.  Plans will include both the high dam and various types for the low gravity dam, that can be built into the higher dam later.
     Saturday and Sunday Frank A. Banks, chief engineer, and J. L. Savage, chief designing engineer, went over the dam site.  With Mr. savage was Dr. C. R. Burkey, chief geologist of the U. S. reclamation service, who was here to inspect the cores obtained in drilling to test the foundation.
     Dr. Burkey declared that the foundation was ideal for the dam.
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     from the Wenatchee World, February 10, 1934:

DAMSITE WATER SUPPLY TESTED
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Approval Of H2O Is Expected From Seattle--Electricity To Be Turned On
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     GRAND COULEE DAM SITE, Feb. 10.--Dr. I. E. Sorenson, representative of the Spokane Medical Service Bureau here, who is also state health inspector for the damsite, yesterday announced that specimens of water from the various wells and springs hereabouts had been sent to Seattle for official test as to their purity.  It is anticipated that the drinking supplies will be approved.
        Richard Classen, manager of the Three Engineers, Inc., of Seattle, yesterday
   announced that the huge 400-kilowatt dynamo would be ready to go into action
   at the beginning of next week.  The big machine will furnish light for the damsite
   area in place of the three auxiliary units now being used.
     February 15 was the date set by officials of the company as the approximate date when the Grand Coulee townsite will be furnished with its first electricity.  Oil lamps are the most popular lighting facility at present with a few small dynamos also working.  The coming of electricity here will bring radio with it.  To date only battery sets, and few of them, can be heard here.
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          The following headline and caption appeared with a picture in the Wenatchee World,
     Feb. 6, 1934:

Pioneer Moves Out As Shovel Moves In--Moving Day For Sam Seaton

     SAM SEATON IS MOVING OUT.  Relentlessly and inexorably machinery and men move in on the time-weary homestead home of the damsite pioneer and in another day, perhaps even today, the house that was built from lumber floated down the Columbia will be brushed aside to make way for a dam.  The power shovel can be seen digging away only a few feet from the house.
     Seatonkanogan bank of the Columbia.